Devices of this kind are used in order to facilitate the loading or unloading of the cargo hold of an aircraft. For this purpose, the covering device bridges an area of the loading opening which is normally closed or covered by the door or gate. This door sill area is interfering with the proper movement of cargo pieces across the door sill due to the construction of the door sill required for a tight closing of the aircraft door. Damage to the door sill must definitely be avoided because it prevents the proper closing or at least the tight closing of the door. The present device is intended to prevent such damage.
Known devices for this purpose are capable of satisfactory service for the bridging requirement and the protection requirement. However, known structures are bulky and thus require a substantial space for their storage when they are not used for the intended purpose. During flight, these devices must be stored in the cargo hold and thus are taking up valuable cargo space which interferes with an optimally efficient utilization of the cargo space for pieces of cargo. Additionally, known structures of this type have the drawback that they do not satisfy all requirements for a simple handling and installation.